Past Events

Le Concert Spirituel: Baroque Orchestral Suites feat. Jeanne Lamon

The legendary violinist and long-time music director of Toronto’s Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Jeanne Lamon, leads sixteen members of Victoria Baroque in a selection of grand Overture Suites and ravishing Concerti Grossi celebrating the first-ever public concert series in Paris. Formed in 1725, Le Concert Spirituel brought music – previously exclusive to the courts – to the public realm, and became a platform to the finest of the French and touring artists. This concert revels in the splendours of the French Suite and Italian Concerto, contrasting and blending two distinct national styles and celebrates our 50th season opener with the spearheading public concert series that became the most acclaimed and imitated series in 18th century Europe. Music by Telemann, Haydn, Rebel, and more.

Strozzi 17th Century Divas feat. Suzie LeBlanc & Dorothee Mields, sopranos

Being published in one’s lifetime was a great accomplishment for composers of the 17th century – especially if you happened to be a woman! Barbara Strozzi published eight collections of exquisite arias and madrigals on the familiar subject of love gone wrong that are of a similar, superlative standard to those of her contemporary Claudio Monteverdi. Strozzi’s remarkable output as an artist is thanks in part to the patronage she enjoyed from the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Vittoria della Rovere who was an important proto-feminist of the early 17th century who believed in the important of supporting virtuoso women artists, musicians and writers. This concert celebrates Strozzi’s 400th anniversary with a programme of sensual and playful arias and duets performed by two of the greatest interpreters of 17th century vocal music living today.

Shostakovich Preludes and Fugues feat. David Jalbert, piano

Montreal pianist David Jalbert provides a finely nuanced and impassioned argument for what more people should recognize as one of the 20th century’s greatest sets of compositions for the piano. Following the example of J.S. Bach in setting one prelude and one fugue in each of the 12 major and minor keys of the modern Western scale, Shostakovich, writing in 1950, offered a staggering range of styles, ideas and counterpoints. This is beautiful music that goes from quiet noodlings to full-scale keyboard assaults. The set was written for the young Tatiana Nikolayevna, the winner of the first International Bach Competition in Leipzig at which Shostakovich had been a judge. Jalbert, as demonstrated in his 2008 recording for ATMA Classique, is capable of mesmerizing across the whole range.

Handel Early Cantatas feat. Amanda Forsythe, soprano

At age 19, George Frideric Handel, not satisfied with being simply a local wonder in his native Germany, set off for Italy — the center of the 18th century musical universe — to find fame and fortune. In Rome, he worked alongside some of the most important musicians of the time and it was there that the young composer wrote some of his most dramatic, virtuosic and exciting works. This exceptional concert features the return of internationally-acclaimed soprano Amanda Forsythe with Pacific MusicWorks under the direction of Stephen Stubbs. The programme includes Handel’s Armida Abbandonata which was part of J.S.Bach’s personal library.

Before Bach: 17th-Century Music for Strings & Winds

Parnassus Musicus: Music of the Austrian Habsburgs

In the early Baroque era, the Austrian Habsburg courts at Graz and Vienna were a cauldron for a rich stew of German and Italian music. The young Archduke Ferdinand (1578–1637) established a vibrant musical ensemble at his court in Graz, where German musicians were gradually joined by Italian newcomers who introduced Baroque novelties like canzonas, sonatas, and concertos. The Italians had triumphed by the time that now-Emperor Ferdinand II took up his throne in Vienna in 1619. In this programme featuring Austrian instrumental music of the early Baroque, La Modestine, Cappella Borealis, and special guests join forces to explore Habsburg music from both sides of the Alps, including motets, canzonas, sonatas, and sacred music for violins, sackbuts, organ, and voices.

Palestrina, Monteverdi & More: Song of Songs

The ancient Song of Songs originated as erotic love poetry around 2500 years ago. It was interpreted by both Judaism and Christianity as an allegorical understanding of the believer’s relationship with God. In Christianity, musical settings of the text became particularly popular in 16th and 17th Centuries, when word expression and moving the listener became increasingly important. Indeed, these settings go beyond concepts of “sacred” or “secular”: Religious belief, longing, sensuality and eroticism become inextricably combined and perfectly expressed by this stunning music. This programme features five of the world’s best vocal soloists specializing in the vocal chamber music of the 17th and 18th centuries. Programme designed by Alex Potter.

Bach Cantatas (BWV 12, 39, 161)

The invention, devotion and beauty that are at the heart of J.S. Bach’s more than 209 sacred cantatas continue to be a source of deep inspiration and consolation to believers and non-believers alike. For this concert of three of his acknowledged masterpieces: Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot (BWV 39), Komm, du Süße Todesstunde (BWV 161) and Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen (BWV 12), Ensemble Les Boreades join four of Europe’s greatest soloists specializing in Bach for one-to-a-part performances in the intimate surroundings of Christ Church Cathedral.

Mozart String Trios

In April 1782, young Mozart wrote to his father Leopold: ‘Every Sunday at 12 o’clock I go to the Baron van Swieten’s, where nothing is played but Bach and Handel. I am currently making myself a collection of Bach fugues…’. In the Baron’s library, Mozart discovered a treasure trove of music by these two already-forgotten composers. Commissioned by the Baron to make arrangements for strings of Bach’s music for his Sunday matinees, Mozart in some cases added his own preludes. Mozart’s Eb Major Divertimento, written shortly after his final three symphonies, belies its title: it is hardly an ‘entertainment’, but a substantial and complex six-movement composition that was described by Mozart biographer Alfred Einstein as “one of his noblest works.”

Fauré Requiem – SOLD OUT

For EMV’s first collaboration with the Vancouver Bach Choir, the singers of this illustrious choir join sixteen of the finest professional choral singers in the Pacific Northwest for a performance of Faure’s uplifting Requiem and Cantique de Jean Racine. The first half will focus on unaccompanied performances of works by other important French composers including a full performance of Poulenc’s Mass in G.